Julio Marquez gained valuable experience coaching Ceres High School's basketball team this summer.

Marquez, 32, was promoted to head coach following five-year leader Brian de la Porte's departure to Western Athletic Conference rival Patterson.

"I have a job to do," Marquez said. "I'm focused on these kids learning new concepts. There's going to be some stumbles."

Varsity returnees Harman Chung, Abel Reyes, Dylan Canatsy, Jr. Garcia, Angel Garcia and Jimmy Bates, and 2012-13 frosh-soph contributors Joshneil Sandhu, Brad Bussard, Juan Anderson, Nick Burt and Sahil Soni, and private-school transfers Puneet Sahi (Central Catholic) and Austin Stiles (Modesto Christrian) will suit up for the Bulldogs during summer-league play.

The season started on June 1 and will end on June 25.
The Bulldogs will play a total of 22 games.

"We have a good all-round team," Marquez said. "We have nine guys that could be starters."

Ceres High competed in a single-elimination tournament, June 22-23, at San Diego State.

The Bulldogs beat Delhi, Pitman and Sonora, and lost to Patterson, Central Catholic and Beyer en route to compiling a 3-3 record at the Cal State Stanislaus tournament.

Ceres High posted a 3-2 record at the Escalon tournament.
The Bulldogs played a total of eight games at Modesto Junior College. Games were staged on Tuesdays.

Ceres High's regular season will get underway during the wintertime.

Marquez was an assistant coach with the Bulldogs for the past four seasons.
Ceres High won its first league title in 17 years, went 17-9 and qualified for the playoffs in 2010-11.

"We're really focusing on learning a new offense," Marquez said. "I'm allowing the kids more freedom. They're really starting to understand."